Features

Roots & Shoots Blog

Building a Sustainable Future: Part Evolution, Part Revolution

Tuesday, 03 May 2016Guest Blog by Laura Bryant
Assistant Vice President of Corporate Communications and Sustainability at Enterprise Holdings, which owns the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands.

In early April, business leaders from around the world gathered at The Wall Street Journal’s annual ECO:nomics forum for three days of discussion centered on a big question: How are energy policy, sustainability and our changing global climate impacting business decisions today and the sustainable strategies of tomorrow?

As you might expect, the conversation was lively, with opinions and approaches as varied as the participants: energy and transportation industry executives, U.S. Department of Energy leaders, clean energy startups, green investment portfolio managers and environmental NGOs. Amid the buzz of strategy and debate one central question came up time and time again: is sustainability a revolution or an evolution?

Enterprise Holdings was founded on a philosophy of managing our business for the long-term. When it comes to sustainability, this means taking action today to help our operations evolve to better serve our customers in the future.

In 2010, we launched our 20/20 Vision initiative to engage our network of airport and neighborhood branches to voluntarily optimize and upgrade their facilities to reduce energy use. The impact of this evolution has been impressive: collectively reducing electricity use by 19.1 percent and natural gas use by 14.8 percent against our 2010 baseline of North America and United Kingdom branches.

But transformative change cannot always come just as a result of a steady climb. It takes leadership and vision to see the world, or an industry, for what it could be. To help usher in the next era of the passenger vehicle, Enterprise has also invested in what we hope will be the next revolution: alternative fuels.

Thanks to an endowment from our owners, the Taylor Family, Enterprise has partnered with a local leader with a global reputation, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, to launch and sustain Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels since 2007. Scientists at the Danforth Center are working to develop crops that are able to adapt to a changing climate and require fewer resources like water and fertilizers, so that our rapidly growing population will have enough nutritious food. And the promise of research at the Enterprise Institute around plant and algae-based sources of fuel might hold a key to a more climate-friendly future for the world of mobility.

Over the last several years, Institute scientists have had breakthrough success in isolating a gene that will advance the breeding of algae better suited for biofuel production. While other Institute researchers have made discoveries in producing the energy-rich chemicals from Camelina seeds, which can be used for industrial and jet fuel applications. These advances, along with others pioneered at the Danforth Center, are paving the way for the mobility solutions of the future.

But, there’s more to be done.

As technology chases the growing urgency of our world’s energy needs, we continue to invest in solutions. From simple, immediate evolutions such as incorporating timers on light fixtures in our branches to investments in the next revolution through complex, long-term programs like the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute's research, we’re continuing to build a more sustainable future for our business and our communities.

Follow along on the blog in the coming weeks as we discuss the research and discoveries happening at the Danforth Center relating to sustainability. Tweet with us #Sustainability.